Bringing Services Back in House

Requested on

Thu 19th July, 2012

Reference

FOI 2158

Resolution

Information provided

Question

The information all concerns the subject of in-sourcing of local authority services, which is the decision making and process of bringing a local authority service (such as highways maintenance, or the homelessness service) back in-house after it has previously been delivered by a contractor acting for the authority.

Answer

Question 1 - Which of the following statements best describes your authority's experience of outsourcing/in­sourcing the provision of services?

The authority has no outsourced services

The authority provides a number of outsourced services, but has not formally considered bringing any of these back in­house (in­sourcing) over the last 3 years

The authority has not formally considered in­sourcing services in the last 3 years, but we deliver "in­house" services that were previously outsourced

The authority has reviewed contracts for outsourced services over the last 3 years and formally considered bringing these services back in­house. However a decision was made to continue outsourcing the service(s)

The authority has reviewed contracts for outsourced services over the last 3 years and formally considered bringing these services back in­house. A decision was made to bring some or all of these service(s) back in­house

Question 2 – for each of the last 3 years (2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12) please state:

N/A

Question 3 – If the authority formally considered in­sourcing any services, but decided NOT to do so, please indicate the reason(s) for the decision below.

N/A

Question 4 – For EACH service actually brought back in-house, please state:

N/A

Question 5 – On the basis of the authority’s experience of the PROCESS of bringing services back in house (i.e. NOT the results), please indicate the FIVE most significant issues/challenges/problems encountered

N/A

Question 6 - Please indicate up to FIVE benefits that the authority has found from the in­sourcing it has carried out

N/A

Question 7 - If the in­sourcing led to cash savings, please indicate the percentage of the original budget that was saved

N/A

Question 8 - Please indicate up to FIVE undesired consequences that the authority has found from the in­sourcing it has carried out

N/A

Question 9 - If cash costs increased as a result of in-sourcing, please indicate the percentage increase over the original budget

N/A

Question 10 – Please indicate up to FIVE of the most significant/important lessons learned from your in-sourcing experience

N/A

Question 11 - Do you expect that the authority will formally consider bringing services back in­ house in the foreseeable future?

N/A

Question 12 - If you expect the authority will definitely bring services back in­house in the future, or will carry out feasibility studies, please state:

N/A

In considering your request we have taken into account the following information which is going to Cabinet at the end of August in the 'future options of service delivery' report:

In house

1. The opportunities in this area would arise if the Council were unsatisfied with an existing shared service or outsourcing arrangement, or if the arrangement had ceased to have relevance. It would also require that the contractual barriers to exiting the arrangement were not excessive. In practice, the Council has no major issues with its shared and outsourced services and the Service Delivery Review Programme does not feature any initiatives looking to bring services back within Council control.

2. As noted previously, in stating the above it should be noted that the Housing Options review, which considered whether the Council should retain its Housing ‘ALMO’ was not in the scope of this exercise.